In the late 1970s, the RN had put all its front line radar eggs in one basket. Sea Spray for Lynx, Sea Searcher for ASW Sea King, and Blue Fox. Sea Spray slightly ahead, Sea Searcher and Blue Fox more or less in parallel.
When the Falklands kicked off, we had 8 B Models. That is, the RN had none, MoD(PE) owned the B models. They were in pairs. B1 and B2 were little more than breadboards, and very immature. B7 and B8 were near production model. You couldn’t mix LRUs or even most modules between pairs. Sea Searcher was in a similar situation, but with fewer B models, as some of the old Lightweight Radar was retained. (What was in the RAF Mk3s. They didn’t want to upgrade).
Development of both Sea Searcher and Blue Fox was stopped dead, and production launched/ramped up. B3-B8 went South along with the first production batch. There could be no expectation of full functionality, and some intended features were missing altogether. There wasn’t much soak testing.
One outcome on Blue fox, a few years later, was a blob appeared on the display tube, and gradually got bigger and obscured it completely. All at the same time. The chemical filter didn’t last as long as expected, and had to be replaced by a Hoya coloured glass one.
In short, there were rafts of production permits and concessions, and a major programme to stabilize the build standards and bring them up to spec took place from 83-on. The Sea Searcher one was never finished. Blue Fox was allowed to continue, as ILIC/Anderwave was in many respects a technology demonstrator for the next gen radars. The programme only finished a month or so before the FRS1 started going in for conversion to FRS2.
One amazing fact. The MLU contract was for ‘all’ remaining 55 systems to be upgraded. 61 turned up. The B Models were still in use, and had never needed maintenance beyond 2nd line. This was their first time back at the factory in 8 years.
Summary. Blue Fox was the dog’s bollix, and when it was replaced by Vixen other countries were queuing up to buy the remaining 55 complete systems. First in line was the RAF. They wanted something to put in Tornado to replace the Buccaneer/Blue Parrot role, and handed me a spec. The Ferranti Chief Designer laughed, and said Blue Fox is way beyond this spec, but it would need a major mod to Tornado to fit it. RAF OR said great – then asked what on earth the RN were getting if they were chucking out something beyond the RAF’s biggest wet dream. In the end, most were scrapped. Manadon got one, and Ferranti were allowed to section one for display. But much of it was at least Secret, and not permitted to be sold to any other country. (India had Blue Fox, but weren’t allowed the MLU).
Health warning. Memory fades a little.